Thanks Haplo and regulars. Half-time round-up: Australian shares...

Thanks Haplo and regulars.

Half-time round-up:

Australian shares retreated this morning as a mixed bag of economic data and corporate earnings failed to raise risk appetite ahead of a long weekend in the US.

At lunchtime the ASX 200 was 28 points or 0.5% weaker at 5623 as a broad sell-off saw all sectors retreat except telecoms (+0.2%). Hardest hit were property trusts, energy and consumer discretionary, all down 1%, and metals & mining, down 0.9%.

The dollar jumped on optimism about Q2 GDP following news of unexpectedly strong capital expenditure over the three months to June. New capital expenditure increased by a seasonally-adjusted 1.1% from the March quarter. Economists had predicted that spending would decline by 0.9% as the mining boom wound down. The dollar rallied nearly half a cent, lately buying 93.61 US cents.

Housing news was less supportive. Sales of new homes slumped 5.7% last month, raising speculation that this year's pick-up in the market may have peaked.

Asian markets were mixed. China's Shanghai Composite dipped 0.01%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.26% and Japan's Nikkei lost 0.52%. Dow futures were recently up one point or less than 0.1%.

Crude oil futures were trading at US$93.87 a barrel. Spot gold was $3.50 firmer at US$1,286.40 an ounce.


A weaker morning than the futures suggested. Bit surprising considering the capex data. I'd guess what we're seeing is overseas profit-taking on the jump in the dollar ahead of Wall Street's long weekend. All of which is largely irrelevant to the specs. I got something out of the volatility in PSY and would have had a second trade with better luck/timing. Traded the post-dividend bounce in AIO but needed a full fill for it to be worth much. Also took FAR.